


A Floating Prison in the Sky

by TheExoticCake



Category: Sword Art Online
Genre: F/M, Original Character-centric, Originally Posted on FanFiction.Net
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-09
Updated: 2018-12-09
Packaged: 2019-09-14 15:23:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 13,272
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16915413
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheExoticCake/pseuds/TheExoticCake
Summary: Shino Asada wants to dive into SAO to escape reality, so does Shiro Shirayuki. What happens when these two meet, and how will they escape this virtual prison? M for language and themes. This is my own interpretation of Aincrad, so things may not be canon.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So, this is a rewrite of my old SAO story, but with changes. It's going to be less scattered (hopefully), it has less plot armored gods, and is really just my interpretation of SAO, with some of the characters and things that happened canonically in it. This is going to flip between Sinon and my OC perspective wise. Without further ado, enjoy the first chapter of this crap. This was also written on FF.net under the same name.

**Sinon's PoV**

I was sitting on my bed holding the fragile helmet-esque form of the Nerve Gear. Tomorrow, the game meant to launch the Nerve Gear was set to go active. Sword Art Online, a VRMMO that allowed the players to escape to another world. I was just hoping that tomorrow would go of without a hitch. Having to move schools is a pain. I stood, set the Nerve Gear down on my desk and set my glasses down before laying in bed and drifting off to sleep.

I woke up with a beam of light on my eyes. The sun wasn't bright enough for me to bother waking, it was still rising, and with the delay with school starting late, there wasn't a reason me to not go back to sleep. I stood and went to close my blinds, then laid back down and fell back to sleep. I woke up for the second time due to a beeping coming from the alarm to my left. I hit the alarm and sat up, looking at the clock and seeing 10:00 on the display.

After taking a shower, I opened my closet and grabbed the uniform I had to wear. It consisted of a white undershirt with a brown sweater over it. It had a black skirt that went close to the knees. I put my glasses on, I didn't really need them, but they make me feel better. I locked the door to my apartment and started heading to school. After walking for around 30 minutes, I arrived at the school grounds. I headed to 3-C and opened the door. The class went silent as the teacher stood and welcomed me.

"Welcome Ms. Asada. There is only one seat available as of now, so please sit in the back next to Mr. Shirayuki in the back." He gestured to a guy sitting in the back row next to the window with brown hair and alabaster skin. I walked over and sat next to him, and he looked over. I saw his grey eyes lock onto mine before quickly looking away.

"Im Shino. Shino Asada, nice to meet you." I said, putting a smile on my face.

He looked over again," Shiro. Shiro Shirayuki, nice to meet you too." He introduced himself in such a quiet voice that it was hard to hear him over the commotion being caused by the other kids. The class passed my fast, and before I knew it, we we're already supposed to head for lunch. I saw Shirayuki stand before turning to me. "Im assuming you don't know this school's layout very well?" I nodded in response. He gestured me to stand, "Come on Asada, I'll show you around if you don't mind missing part of your lunch."

"I don't mind. Thank you." I stood to join him as he shrugged.

"Its expected from me, I helped one person around and suddenly in the new tour guide." He sighed, "On the bright side I've learned this place well." He started showing me around and after taking me through the important parts of the school, showed me to where the cafeteria was. "…And this is the cafeteria, its obvious what its here for. Well, this is the end of the tour. I'll be around if you ever need help." He waved as he walked away and went somewhere in the cafeteria. I stood in the line and got food, and afterwards I looked out at the tables and saw that a majority of them were crowded. I walked past the more crowded ones and saw Shirayuki sitting on his own.

"Mind if I sit here?" He jumped when I spoke.

"Huh?" He said in a surprised tone. "Oh yeah, knock yourself out."

I sat across the table from him. "Thanks for showing me around today."

"Of course." He responded, looking back down at the book he was reading. We both sat in silence until the bell rang, and we had to return back to our class. Nothing else really happened, other than normal school stuff. When the final bell rang, everyone stood up and left the room. After walking to my apartment, I opened the door and locked it behind me. Setting my bag down, I changed into a pair of black shorts and a white tee, and laid on my bed. It was still 30 minutes until the servers went live for SAO. I took my glasses off, setting them on the table next to my bed, and put the Nerve Gear over my head. "Link start"

A wave of colors and noise overwhelmed my senses, and deposited me in a character creation screen. There was an image of myself that looked exactly like I did in real life, with a variety of sliders and color options. I went to move the slider for my height, but as I went to move it a warning popped up on screen. _'WARNING. Changing your height will affect your walking in game, and you may need to relearn how to move properly. Are your sure you would like to change these settings?'_  I hit decline and decided to change my hair color instead. I changed my hair so that it was more split on the sides, with some hanging down in front of my eyes being held by rubber bands, and chose a pale blue for my hair, and added metal clips to where I had my ribbons in real life. I changed my eye color to an indigo, then accepted the character. A menu showed up, asking me for my username.

I entered  _'Sinon'_  as my name, a name that I didn't know I would be called for the next 3 and a half years, and that would follow me for the rest of my life. I selected accept, and a counter showing 20 seconds appeared on the screen, along with a dulled our button that said  _'Join Server'_ , which soon after glowed blue. I pressed the button, and soon felt myself being moved around by some force.


	2. Chapter 2

**Sinon's PoV**

After the bright light faded, I opened my eyes and saw a plaza, full with thousands of other players. I saw some that were running in directions like they knew what they were doing, but most of the we're standing around without a single clue as to what was going on. I looked around and saw what looked like a shop, or what a shop should probably be. I walked over to it and looked up at the sign, and sure enough it was interesting a shop. I opened the door and saw different weapons scattered around inside of glass cases with price cards arranged below them. I walked up to the clerk, who happens a golden money symbol above his head and started talking to her.

With the starting allowance of 2500 Cor, I bought a dagger and a bundle of 20 wooden picks meant for throwing. Once I got everything I stated exiting the shop, when I bumped into someone. "Wuh?" I heard a startled voice and looked up. In front of me was a girl with pale skin, red eyes, and long purple hair being held up by a thin red bandana with two yellow arrows on it. "S-Sorry about that, I should've been paying attention to where I was going."

I just shrugged, "I wasn't paying attention either, so let's just call it even."

She nodded happily before adopting a thoughtful look, "Hey, you kinda seem like your new to this game, am I right?"

My eyes widened, and I nodded.

She smiled, "Well, how about I show you the ropes, I could also introduce you to one of my friends in here."

I nodded, "I would appreciate it"

"Okay, just wait here, I need to buy somethings" She walked inside and returned shortly with a sword attached to her waist. "Your still here, good. My name's Yuuki, what's yours?"

"Sinon"

"Well then Sinon, have you ever played a MMORPG before?"

I shook my head, and Yuuki just sighed, "This is gonna be a long explanation. While we're talking, follow me" We started walking out of the town with Yuuki explaining the basics.

**-Scene Shift-**

After walking for about 20 minutes, we arrived at a hilled area covered in grass. There was a singular person with a silver cloak laying down on the hill closest to us. Yuuki pointed towards them, "That's my friend. He might seem cold at first but he's a good person once you get to know him." She started walking towards him, and of course I followed. After all, they can help me have any idea as to what the hell I'm supposed to do.

They guy laying on the ground looked over at Yuuki and raised his right arm, "Figured if I waited you'd show up here." He stood up and his hood fell off. He had silver hair that was short on the sides but long enough in the front to fall down past his eyes. Speaking of his eyes, his left eye was a light sky blue while his right was a magenta. He had a cold appearance, with his eyes adding more to his aura. He noticed I was standing behind Yuuki, as he nodded in my direction, "So who's that."

"Hm. Oh, this is Sinon, shes new to MMOs, so I'd figure why not help her get the hang of the basics."

He looked past the two of us and sighed, "We should probably start grinding, other people are showing up." He pointed behind us, where a black haired kid and a red haired man we're walking over one of the hills. He started walking up the hill, and gestured for us to follow. Hitting the top of the hill, we saw a bunch of boar monsters. "Crap, I fogot, didn't I." Me and Yuuki just looked over at him with confused looks. "Eh, sorry about that, anyway. Sinon right? Name's Shiro." He said while looking me up and down, "Dagger, probably has throwing picks somewhere, right?"

I looked at him in surprised, "How?"

He shrugged "Given the fact your using a dagger. It's normal for people with daggers to have some option for range, especially when you can't get close enough to hit something."

Yuuki caught my attention and gestured to a boar that was eating grass. "Those are mobs, thet give exp, cor, and some can drop materials for upgrading items and other things. Fighting is simple in this game, as you can rely on sword skills for fighting, or if you're a more advanced player you can fight manually, and activate sword skills to combine with your basic attacks." She looked back towards me and sighed, "I lost you didn't I?"

"Mobs drop things, and there's manual fighting and sword skills fighting."

"Nice, now I want you to attack the boar. You're a beginner, so you have the auto sword skills equipped, so you should just need to swing your dagger and a hit should land." I nodded and walked towards the boar, unsheathing my dagger. It was balanced, with more weight in the hilt than the blade. I held it with the point of the blade pointing towards my target. As It started to run towards me, my blade started lighting up blue and I started moving forward. Once we we're a certain distance apart, my body started to move on its own as I lunged past it, and then a reward screen popped up, giving me some cor and exp.

Both Yuuki and Shiro were clapping when I walked back, and Yuuki complimented me on my first kill. The three of us continued to fight mobs for a few hours, before taking a break near a broken fountain and taking in the scenery. "So Yuuki, how did you and Shiro meet?"

"We we're in the beta on the second floor, I was farming for certain materials, and so was he. We grouped up and split the resources. After that we just grouped and haven't abandoned it."

Shiro spoke up for the first time since we reached the fountain, "So Sinon, how did you meet Yuuki, and please tell me it's better than you went asking random people for help."

"Hm? Oh, im not that desperate, she offered to help be after I ran her over opening a door." I said with an embarrassed smile. I wasn't completely sure why, but I wasn't scared around these two like i would normally be, instead I felt slightly at ease. It probably had to do with me being in a game, but I couldn't be completely sure. Both Shiro and Yuuki we're laughing, when suddenly a bell rang.

Once.

Twice.

Three times.

After the third chime, my surroundings started to warp, and I was back in the town of beginnings, along with everyone else teleporting around all over the plaza. Shiro appeared out of the crowd to me left, and Yuuki showed up shortly after.

"The hells going on here. That was a forced teleport, nobody should have the authority to do that."

Blood started falling from the sky, making me gag and look away. When I decided to look back, a cloaked figure was floating the sky. "Welcome, my name is Akihiko Kayaba, and welcome to my world. Some of you may have noticed that the Log Out button is missing from the menu. This is not a bug, it is an intended feature. All 10,000 of you are trapped inside of this world I have made. Another feature is when your avatar perishes in this world, your real body also perishes. Any attempts to remove the Nerve Gear from the outside will result in radiation waves that will fry the wearers brain. The only way for you to leave this place is to conquer all 100 floors, and beat the final boss. One last thing, I have left you all a parting gift." Once he finished, everyone looked into their inventory, and all around people who pulled out the mirror that was gifted we're enveloped in blue polygons.

I pulled out the mirror and looked into it, and soon the blue polygons surrounded me. When they disappeared, I was left looking into my black eyes. My eyes widened as a started becoming sick to my stomach, but hearing the sound of something shattering. I looked over to see that Shiro had thrown his mirror, but he had a familiar set of grey eyes and brown hair.

He looked over to me and Yuuki with an angry yet determined look on his face. "Sinon, will you come with us. The three of us have a good chance of clearing this game, so how about it."

I didn't trust my voice, so I just nodded. "Great, follow me, let's get the hell out of here."

He turned around and started walking away, but before he could get far a grabbed his arm, "Shirayuki?" I whispered softly to try to keep Yuuki from hearing.

He nodded, "Well talk later, let's just get the hell out of here."


	3. Chapter 3

**Shiro's** **PoV**

I walked into the inn room that the three of us shared and slammed the door behind me, "Yuuki, Sinon, we need to talk. Now." Sinon jumped and looked up from her book and glared at me.

"Could you at least be somewhat quiet?" She said with an irritated tone.

I just waved her off as Yuuki walked in from the other room. "So, you ready for what I just found?" They both nodded, "I found the labyrinth, it was inside the forest outside Tolbana."

It's been two weeks since we were trapped in this hell of a death game. As far as we knew, I was the first person to find the entrance of the labyrinth, the largest dungeon on the floor. Sinon snapped her book shut, and Yuuki sat next to her on the couch. "How did you find it?"

"I was gathering materials, and I found the entrance. I came back here as soon as I found it. I figured we could rest now then explore it tomorrow."

They both nodded and went back to what they were doing, and I walked over and sat next to Sinon. I saw her look at me through the corner of her eye. "Can I help you?"

"I think I still owe you a conversation." She closed her book and looked over with a confused look. "When we left the town of beginnings, I said I would explain later. So here I am, ask what you want."

"So you are Shirayuki?" I nodded. "The one who showed me around school." Another nod. "And now we're both here."

"Yep"

"So what do I call you, Shiro or Shirayuki?"

"Call me Shiro in here, and Shirayuki in real life. I'll do the same for you I guess."

"Are we going to tell Argo about the labyrinth, or are we going in there alone."

"We go in alone first, level and stuff, then sell the info to Argo and wait for a meeting between the higher level players."

She nodded and went back to reading her book, and I slowly started to drift to sleep.

**-Scene Shift. Two weeks later.-**

"So where are we going exactly?" I asked, voicing the question that me and Sinon we're thinking.

"A square in Tolbana, Argo said that's where the meeting for the boss raid was." Yuuki said while leading us in a direction. We went into the labyrinth and friended a couple levels, with me hitting 15, and Yuki and Sinon hitting 14. After a short walk, we reached the square that everyone was gathered around, and headed up to a small section at the top of the seats that nobody was around. A few minutes passed, then a guy with long blue hair walked up to the podium.

"Hello everyone, my name is Diavel and my role is knight." He paused, as if eliciting a response from the crowd. He was met with silence, "Tough crowd huh. Anyways, we have information about the boss, due to these pamphlets handed out at the shops. They have been updated with information about…"

He was cut off by a man with orange spikey hair jumping from the top of the steps and landing on the platform Diavel was on. "He looks like a cactus, doesn't he?" I said quietly enough so that only the two sitting next to me could hear, and I heard both of them chuckling.

"Hold on a second, I think we have something else to address first. We need to talk about the beta testers. Those assholes left all of us in the first town to die. I know some of you out there are beta testers, so come show yourself and give people your crap as an apology."

Before he could continue rambling, I walked down and cut him off. "Hey, cactus. How stupid are you?"

He glared at me, "Who the hell are you to be calling me cactus."

"Your talking shit about the beta testers, yet you don't realize that they've helped more people than you think."

He snorted at me, "And how's that, they let two thousand people die on the first floor, they just up and left even though there were people who died because they were selfish."

I pulled out the pamphlet and held it up so he could see, "This was written by beta testers. Everyone had access to these, and even with them people died. It doesn't matter how much you know, if your not strong enough and willing to fight, than your not going to survive here."

"And who are you to be saying that?"

I opened the pamphlet to the section about daggers and held it up to him, "See the name there, that's who wrote that."

"So, I don't understand why this Shiro person is important."

"Their important because that 'Shiro' person you were talking about, is the one standing in front of you." I bowed with a smirk on my face, "Normally I'd say nice to meet you, but you're a prick so I'll pass."

"Well, if you don't have anything to say defending the beta testers, then leave so I can continue."

I stood there with a blank expression on my face, "How about you go sit your ass down so the people who want to get out of this game can, and aren't sitting here listening you to whine like a little bitch." I turned and back to where Sinon was and sat to her left, putting my hand on my forehead. The argument with distracted me, so I wasn't focused during the rest of the meeting. I snapped out of my thoughts when Yuuki started shaking my shoulder. "Come on Shiro, let's go get an inn, it's getting late."

I nodded and stood up, walking with the two to the nearest inn. We rented a room that had two beds and a couch. We passed time playing this weird card game that Yuuki bought in the shop, that resulted in a broken pack of cards and quite some yelling. I called it early and laid down on the couch, drifting off to sleep.

When I woke up, it was still dark out. I looked over to the clock that was on my HUD, and saw that it was two in the morning. I got up and noticed that there was a blanket draped over me. I pulled it off and stretched, then walked into the bathroom to change back into my armor. I put my cloak on and was about to open the door to the hall before I heard moving. "Shiro?" I heard Sinon whisper behind be.

I turned and rubbed the back of my head, "Sorry for waking you."

She shook her head, "You didn't wake me, I never fell asleep in the first place Mind if I ask where your going?"

"Walking, I need some fresh air, maybe some food."

"Can I join, I need to clear my head."

I nodded, and she got up from her bed and headed into the bathroom. She returned later and stood next to me. Opening the door, we headed to the door o the inn and headed out. As it opened, we got hit with a blast of cold air. Sinon pulled up her muffler, "I need to get one of those, they seem so convenient." I complained as I pulled up my hood. We walked in silence until we hit a bench overlooking a fountain in the center of town.

Sinon sat next to me on the bench, "Shiro, I have a question."

"Hm? Go for it."

"Why do you fight, is there something you want to get back to, or some other reason to get back."

I sat and thought about it, "Not really, I just fight because I enjoy it, that's the whole point of this world, isn't it? To fight, beat the bosses your need to beat, and win. Just because I could die in both worlds, doesn't mean there's no reason to fight. Besides, I don't have anybody back in the real world."

"That makes sense, this world was made to be beaten, and fighting the bosses are part of it. We can't really worry about the real world, we need to focus on this world first."

"What makes you keep fighting."

She seemed caught off guard, "Why do I fight?" She looked down, " I guess I fight because I want to become stronger, I want to not have to rely on others to be strong for me. That's why I fight, I feel that if I can get out of this world, than I can be strong in real life."

"Do you think that it would help with your arrhenophobia?"

She looked over confused, "Arrenowha?"

"Arrhenophobia, fear of men." Her eyes widened when I said that, "Don't tell me you didn't think someone would notice after a while. It's obvious that you're scared of them, even if slightly."

"How, I thought I hid it well," She looked down.

"Its simple really, you try to avoid them, and you don't to hide behind me and Yuuki when males are involved, but not when there are females involved. It's similar to how I treat humans in general, except it's not a fear."

"what is it then?"

I chuckled dryly, "A hatred, I despise humanity. Not you and Yuuki, you two are my friends, but I couldn't care less if everyone else could burn in hell. Humans are greedy, they don't care about others, and only about themselves. They are willing to do anything to get what they want, even to the point of killing others."

"Why do you have humans."

"If I tell you about why I have humans, you tell me why your scared of males." She looked to the ground, "Exactly, it's not something you want to share with other people, I'm in the same boat."

"I'm changing the subject. How we're you able to sleep, I'm to scared about tomorrow."

I put my hand on her shoulder, "You don't need to feel scared, nothing bad would happen to you, you know how to take care of yourself, and you have two people here fighting right next to you. Besides, we don't need to worry about fighting the boss, we're on ad duty."

"Ad duty?"

"Ad means additional, mobs basically. Anyways, we should probably get back and rest. We'll need it for tomorrow."

She nodded and we both stood, "Shiro. Thank you, I need something to get my head cleared."

"Course." We walked in silence the rest of the way in silence, then both laid down at our separate resting places.


	4. Chapter 4

**Shiro's** **PoV**

I stretched, my back popping. We've been waiting in front of the labyrinth for he past 30 minutes for the boss raid, and the last group finally showed up. Diavel stoop up on a tree stump, "So, everyone's here now. Remember your roles when we get to the boss room, the walk there will be please tell, as all mobs have been cleared out. Anyways, let's do this!" There was a cheer rising up from the crowd. The door to the labyrinth opened, and the crowds started to funnel in, while my party stayed back. "You ready?" I looked over to them. I saw determination in Yuuki's eyes, and worry in Sinon's. I put my hand on her shoulder, "Hey, quit worrying. We're not fighting the boss directly, we don't have anything to worry about." She nodded and we entered the labyrinth after the raid group.

After walking for who knows how long, and getting lost along the way, we finally reached the boss room. The people in the front pushed the door open, and revealed a long room full of marble pillars with marble flooring. In the middle of it all was the big man/goat thing himself, Ilfang the kobold Lord. The people who had boss fighting roles went after him, while everyone else went after mobs. The said mobs we were fighting we're Ruin Kobold Sentinels, which were smaller kobolds with full head helmets and a mace. Yuuki ran in a parried the first ones attack, to which I rushed in and slashed, killing it. I turned to party the next one, when two wooden picks pierced it's chest, then a dagger slowly following. Sinon was on the other side.

We nodded at each other before turning and going to fight other Sentinels, the worry and fear in her eyes gone. I parried a mace and activated a skill that initiated a quick 5-hit combo, killing it. Being overleveled is great, isn't it?. We continued to fight the Sentinels until we heard a roar, the attackers got the boss down to it's last bar, and it pulled out a five foot long katana. I killed the sentinel in front of me and noticed they stopped spawning. I heard the other two run up to me, "Whats going on, that's different than it was in the Beta."

"Yep, that's a katana, not a cresent blade." We watched as Diavel told everyone to stand down as he rushed in, only to get slapped across the room and into the pillar. I heard Sinon gasp as I just muttered "Dumbass" under my breath. "Sinon, Yuuki, let's go kill us a goat thing."

They nodded and ran with me. I started running faster and slid under it's blade and in between it's legs, slashing at it as I went past. It turned to hit me with a katana, but before I could party, Yuuki did it for me. She nodded in my direction as I ran forward ad unleashed a combo, staggering Ilfang more. When he recovered, he tried to step on me, but I jumped backward, tripping over a broken piece of marble. When I got back up, I saw the boss had wooden picks coming out of one of it's eyes, you can guess who did that.

I heard her run up beside me, "You alright?"

"Yeah, just tripped." I looked back up at the boss to see it's final health bar into red, "Blind it again, then I'll finish it?"

She nodded and her picks started glowing blue, and left her hand at a high velocity. Shortly after the boss roared and a red symbol popped up, an eye with a line through it, representing blindness. I rushed forward, chaining two sword skills to unleash a 9-hit combo, and combining that with my ability that allowed me to deal double damage when an enemy has a debuff, annihilated the last bit of his bar.

After landing the last attack, I heard shattering, and the reward screen popped up, rewarding me with col, exp, and the last hit bonus, ' _Muffler of the Moon_ '. I equipped it, and a silver muffler appeared around my neck. Everyone around started cheering, and I turned around to walk back to my party.

"Wait just a minute! Why are you all praising him. He's a beta tester, he let Diavel die just so he and his cheating friends could reap the rewards. They're the reason 2000 people died on this floor." I familiar orange headed prick pushed his way out of the crowd and in front of me.

I just sighed, is really didn't want to deal with idiots today. "What do you want now."

"I want you to realize that you're the reason 2000 people died. If you had stayed to help them, they wouldn't have died, and neither would have Diavel."

"So one person was supposed to help thousands? I'm not the reason they died. What about the ones who killed themselves, or the ones that were too weak to survive. Diavel died because he got greedy. Now if you don't have anything important to say, I have better things to do than listen to a dumbass rabble on about things he doesn't really know about."

He stuttered over his words, "Yeah? W-Well you're a cheater. How did you know what he was going to do, huh?"

"Simple, I've played enough games in my life, besides, if you can move and react fast enough, nothing can hit you. And if nothing can hit you, than it's easy to win."

"Still, you're a cheater, and you're the reason people died, so how about you pay with your life."

I narrowed my eyes as he drew his mace. I stepped towards him, getting inside of his guard as he swung. I slashed twice, one hitting his face and the other his chest, dropping his health into yellow. He staggered back wards, and I turned around. "If any of you come after me or my party, I won't hesitate to kill you." I said in a cold voice as I pulled my muffler over my nose. Walking past Sinon and Yuuki, I gestured for them to follow. I heard people shouting that we were beaters behind us, but I didn't really pay much attention to them.

We walked to the top before anyone spoke, and suprisingly it was Sinon. "Did you mean what you said back there, about killing people to protect us?"

"Yeah, I cant let either of you die I'll run out of people to argue with."

They both chuckled as we reached the teleport gate on floor 2. I activated it and walked away, the other two following me to the nearby inn.

We all could use some rest after that fight.


	5. Chapter 5

**Sinon's PoV**

We've been in this death game for four months, and we've just recently cleared the tenth floor. Me, Shiro, and Yuuki are currently sitting at a table, waiting for our waiter. "So explain again why I can't get raisin cookies?" Yuuki was asking Shiro when he shut down her idea of raisin cookies.

"Because, they are an abomination, And as a connoisseur of tasty treats, I can assure you that chocolate chip cookies are the for real deal. Besides, real badasses eat chocolate chip cookies"

I just chuckled as the waiter walked over, we ordered our food. I got a bowl of chicken soup, Shiro got a plate of fish, and Yuuki just got a couple cookies with a cup of hot chocolate. We ate mostly in silence, other than Yuuki and Shiro teasing each other. I just sat there, listening t _o_ their bickering while thinking to myself.  _"We've been in here for four months, and we're still alive._ _We must be in hospitals in the real world."_

"..non. Sinon." I heard Shiro's voice which snapped me out of my thoughts. "What are you thinking about?"

"Well, we've been in here for a while now, right?" they nodded. "Well, we have to be in hospitals be this point, otherwise we would be dead." They nodded again. "Well, they wouldn't keep us here forever. We're all taking up space in our hospitals, keeping rooms closed off from people who actually need them. We could just be wasting space."

"Sinon, shut up."

Hearing Yuuki say that surprised both me and Shiro. "So what if we're taking up space in hostpitals, who cares. There's multiple different hospitals out there. If a hospitals out of space, oh well. There's other ones they can go to. So what if we each take up a room, the other people can just screw off. This is for our lives, and I won't let someone unplug me just to have a chance of saving someone else."

Both me and Shiro just sat there in a stupor, before Shiro broke the silence. "Yuuki, that was the rudest thing I've ever heard you say. Holy shit, I never knew you were able to be selfish." In response to him, she just stuck out her tounge.

"Im always trying to be selfless, so why can't I be selfish sometimes."

"Going back to what Sinon was talking about before, they might not keep us alive forever, so we're probably on a time limit. I'd say give or take a few years." Shiro said, bringing it back to the earlier conversation.

"But we have 90 more floors to go through, how are we supposed to get through all those in a few years." I looked down at the table before hearing a chair scrape the floor. I felt a hand on my shoulder, and looked over seeing Yuuki sitting next to me, "Cheer up Sinon, we've already cleared 9 floors, at this rate we're set to clear it by a couple years."

I smiled, "Right, thanks Yuuki." She sat back where she was before and we finished eating.

"So, anyone know where Liz is now?" Shiro brought up the question everyone was thinking. Lisbeth, or Liz, is the blacksmith that the three of us commonly go to for repairs. She sets up floor mats in town on the newest floors to try to gain customers.

"Actually, I think she was back in Tolbana. She said recently that she would be there. Besides, we could just message here."

Shiro just groaned, "Right, forgot about that. But she's in Tolbana, back on the first floor?"

Yuuki just nodded, "Hey Sinon, you have her on your list right?" I nodded to her question. "Well, ask her where she is."

I opened up my menu, and went to my friends list. It said she was indeed currently at Tolbana on the first floor. I opened up the message tab and asked where she was. I got a response almost immediately, saying she was at a shop in the main square. "Hey guys, let's go to Tolbana, apparently she is there." The three of us headed to the teleport gate, and headed to the main square of Tolbana. There, we just had to look around for a short while before seeing a shop that said Lisbeth's smithy in big wooden letters.

"Well, when did she get an upgrade?"

The three of us went inside, and instead of a brown haired girl, I saw a pink haired girl, but she still had all of Lisbeth's features. "Liz, you have pink hair now?"

She looked up, "Oh! Shiro, Sinon, Yuuki, what can I do for you today."

"I need more picks, and we all need repairs for our weapons. But how did you get pink hair?"

She reached up and grabbed her hair, "Apparently, on the new floor, in a city called Radiant Garden, there's a girl there that if you give her an item, you can change certain traits. For example, your hair and your eyes."

As she was getting to work on our repairs, she continued the conversation. "I can show you to her shop when we're done here, but you need the item she requests. It changes each time from what I've heard."

"What did you need?"

"A rare metal, luckily Shiro here brought it in a while ago with no use for it."

She handed Shiro his dagger, and gave Yuuki her sword. "Your all set, as for you Sinon." She pointed towards a container on the other side of the shop. "Take as many as you want, it's on the house. Think if what Shiro brought in a payment."

I walked over and grabbed the container, taking the 50 picks that were in there. "So, Where is this shop at? I want my purple hair back."

She flipped a sign on the window, and led us outside. "Come in, let's go to the tenth floor, it's there."

We teleported to the tenth floor, and she led us over to a shop. "Here it is, just expect for it to be something pricey." We walked in the door, and saw a generic looking NPC standing there.

"Hi there, how may I help you!" A menu popped up infront of all of us, showing different customization options and prices. The prices were anything from col to rare boss drops. I selected by hair to be the same powder blue color that it was before it changed back to black. It said that it only required col, which I happily paid. The eye color on the other hand, required a drop from an enemy called defenders. I closed the menu. I looked over, to see Yuuki with both purple hair and red eyes, and Shiro with a dejected look in his eyes. "Hey Shiro, what's wrong?"

"I need a dualhorn, where the hell do I get a dualhorn." I just giggled. "Why are you laughing?"

I opened up my inventory and sent him a trade request, which he accepted. I put up a dualhorn, and when I did his eyes brightened. I sent it over to him and he immediately went back into his customization menu. Shortly after, his hair went from a light brown to a light silver with a few streaks of light blue in the front.

He looked over and grinned at me, "Thanks Sinon."

I nodded, "Question, have you heard of an enemy called a defender?"

Yuuki brought herself into the conversation, "I do. There just right outside the town. They have a decent chance of dripping the cracked shield you need." The three of us left and headed to a part of the town aqueducts, and into the reactor area. There, a bunch of purple dog like creatures holding shields spawned. "Avoid the shields, those things hurt."

After running and jumping around the defenders shields for twenty minutes, both me and Shiro got the drops we needed. We arrived back to the NPC's customization station, and I changed my eyes for a light blue, and the pupil was more narrowed, like a cats. I closed the menu and looked over to Shiro, who's left eye was magenta with a similar pupil to mine, while his right eye was a light blue, similar to my hair.

"So, Sinon, Yuuki. Can we go back to the inn so I can stab a pillow."

"Shiro, what the actual hell are you talking about." I spoke up, trying to see what was going through his head.

"Did you not see those things swinging me around like a toy. I need to vent somehow, and I don't want to go deal with other things." He then went quieter, "Besides, they were dogs. I hate dogs."

"I feel like that's a story you don't want to tell."

"Dogs are evil, plain and simple. They stole my bagel." I chuckled as this conversation continued back to the inn, where Shiro did indeed stab a pillow.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I'm putting a note here because I can. I'm going to start putting dates next to who's PoV the chapter is, just so you can have a kind of a time frame and exactly how much time has passed between each time skip. This is just so it's less confusing as to when a chapter is taking place. The dates are only in universe, and have nothing to do with real life. That means there could be a Christmas episode in June. Also, for my sake, Yuuki is 13 as of now In this fic, with Shiro being 14 and Sinon being 15. Screws with canon timeline, but I don't really give a fuck. Anyways, I'll shut up now, so enjoy.

Shiro's PoV

November 19th, 2023

I woke up to a familiar scream. I jumped up and rushed over to Sinon's bed, where she was sitting up, visibly shaking. I sat down next to her and saw her look at me with wide eyes. "Sinon, try to calm down."

I grabbed her hand and put it against my chest, and saw her face redden. I chalked that up her panic attack, "Sinon, focus on my breathing. Hear it? Breathe with me, it will help calm you down." We sat like this for around 20 minutes before she finally calmed down. She buried her face in my chest, suprising me as my face started growing hotter. I felt something wet on my chest, and felt Sinon starting to shake.

"Hey, you alright?" I felt her shake her head.

"Please Shiro. Just, let me cry." I say there and let her cry into my chest until she pulled her head back and wiped her eyes. "Thank you, I needed that."

"Of course, I understand how panic attacks can get."

She looked down and said something quiet enough so I couldn't hear it, then she spoke up louder. "Im sorry Shiro, you shouldn't have to spend time helping me stop freaking out."

"Look, Sinon, it's not a problem. It's easier to get over if you have people helping you. You have both me and Yuuki here for you. You don't have to face this alone."

She looked up and smiled at me with tears in her eyes, "Thank you Shiro. Speaking of Yuuki, where is she?"

"Have you not seen how late it is during the day? It's not suprising that she's out doing something. Anyways, I should probably go get something to eat."

"Could I join you?"

"Yeah sure."

We walked over to the diner that was across from our inn. I ordered a bowl of rice while Sinon ordered the most American thing on the menu, bacon and eggs.

"Hey Shiro, why didn't you just cook? You could've made something instead of buying something."

I just shrugged, "Didn't feel like it, besides, don't have time. I wanna check up on something after."

Sinon looked up with a curious expression, "let me guess, the rat told you something?"

"Yep, supposedly there's a one of a kind item, and you can trade it in for one of a kind weapons. I could use a new dagger."

"Can I join in, I don't have anything planned for today."

I nodded and we continued to eat our breakfast. When we finished, we headed out to the far left corner of floor 32, and into a Forrest. "So, we're looking for a NPC in a black cloak near a flower bed. That's all I know."

I heard her sigh next to me, "So we for flowers, yet we don't know what kind. Helpful."

"Hey, cheer up. I might just pick you some flowers." I looked over with a smirk and saw that her face was slightly reddened.

"L-lets just get this over with." She stuttered, with her blush getting worse.

We walked into the Forrest and immediately saw a batch of flowers, but no cloaked person in sight. "Welp, let's keep going." We continues walking, seeing multiple different flower beds, ranging from daisies to sunflowers, but still no cloaked figure. We approached the border of the map, and saw a flower bed full of blue flowers with yellow centers.

"Whoa, those are beautiful." I heard Sinon gasp from behind me. I walked forward and kneeled infront of them, and got a notification saying quest step updated. Shortly after I heard footsteps that were heavier than Sinon's, so I these up. When the footsteps stopped, a figure in a black cloak kneeled next to me, and started picking flowers.

The cloaked person, a female, started speaking in a light, soft voice, "These flowers are beautiful."

I glanced over, but there was no sign of her face, so I looked back down, "Yeah, they really are." I pulled one out of the ground, and an item card calling it a Forget-Me-Not.

"You seem different from the other Somebodies I've met."

"Somebodies?"

"You know, people with hearts. People like me are nobodies, people with out hearts. Vessels made from the memories of our somebodies" a marker stating that the quest was complete appeared on my screen. "Here." I looked over to the Mysterious Figure to my right, who was holding out her hand, offering me to take what was in it. I reached out and grabbed it, with it appearing in my inventory as a thalassa shell. I looked down at it and heard the Figure walk away, then the sound of wind. I picked up more flowers and out them in my inventory, then turned around, standing and walking over to Sinon.

I pulled out the flowers from my inventory and gave them to her, "Here, it seemed like you liked these."

She took the flowers with a blush on her face, "T-thank you." She said when looking down. 'how am I just now noticing how cute she is.'

"So, we should probably get back, Lizbeth said she wanted us to do her a favor." I messaged Yuuki, telling her to meet us back at the inn.

We teleported back to the inn, and noticed we were running low on crystals. We entered the door of the inn and saw Yuuki sitting on her bed. "So, What you two get up to?" She said with a mischievous smirk on her face.

"Ah, met some random cloaked person, got a shell, and some flowers for Sinon. Anyways, come on, Lizbeth said she wanted our help with something. So let's go."

We headed down to Tolbana and walked over to Lizbeth shop. When we entered, she turned around holding a rapier. "Hey you three, you here to help?" I nodded. "Cool, you up for grabbing some ore?"

"Sure, we don't have anything better to do. So where are we going." Yuuki spoke up before we had a say in it.

"A mountain on floor 55. A dragon gives a rare ore, and I figured you could come with. You three are the three highest leveled I know. Please, I can pay you the worth of the Ore."

"Uhh, isn't that the coldest place?"

She sighed, "yeah, that's the problem, and I have to go with you. Only a master Smith can find the ore."

I looked over to the other two with me, who just shrugged. "Welp, it's off to go freeze and find some metal."


	7. Chapter 7

**Shiro's** **PoV**

**November** **19, 2023.**

I pulled up my muffler, and saw Sinon do the same. We we're standing at the bottom of the Beor mountain. I looked over to Lizbeth, "So, the top of this place has the ore?" She nodded.

"There should be no mobs on the way up, but there is a boss from what I've heard."

I grumbled, "So you just brought us to fight a boss."

We started heading up the mountain that was covered in snow and ice. "Hey Sinon, do you feel at home here?"

"What are you talking about? No I don't feel at home here, what the hell are you talking about." She said, obviously frustrated.

"Well, you have been nicknamed the Ice cold Markswoman. So I figured you would feel at home here."

"Shiro, I swear when we're done with this I will shove this dagger so far up your-"

I clamped my hand over her mouth, and saw her glaring dagger at me, "Lets not finish that sentence when Yuuki's here. Besides, why are you getting so frustrated with me right now?"

She forcefully pushed my hand away, "Because I can. I've had enough of your teasing for one day, so just shut up, or I will rip you a new one."

"Alright, I'll leave you alone for now." I started walking away. ' _What the hell is wrong with me, why am I getting dejected over that.'_

We continued walking up the mountain until about halfway, where we sat in a cave for a break. I sat in the far part of the cave, watching the three girls talking, sitting around a fire. I saw Yuuki and Sinon getting in a slight argument, before Sinon sighed and walked over to where I as sitting. She sat next to me and we both sat in silence before I spoke up, "So, what now, here to lecture me more." I said, with my voice breaking in the middle.

"I'm sorry Shiro. People have their limits, and you hit mine with your teasing."

"I know, I'm Sorry Sinon, I'm an inconsiderate asshole who only cares about himself." I said, hugging my legs closer to my body with a tear rolling down the left side of my face. I felt a cold pair of arms around me, "Wha?"

"Im sorry, Yuuki said that I hurt you when I snapped. I didn't realize you would take it that way." She pulled me closer, "But, if I may, why did you get to hurt."

I sat in silence. "Shiro, if you don't want to tell me you don't have to, but just like you told me, you have people here who are willing to listen and help you." Her saying that broke me, as tears started selling up in my eyes.

"Sinon, one of my biggest fears is losing the people closest to me. I don't want to lose my family, not again."

"You consider me part of your family? Wait, Again?"

I stood, taking my cloak off and giving it to her. "Later. Here use this, maybe you'll stop shivering up here." I stretched and straightened out my grey long sleeved shirt, with the sleeves being big enough so they hid my hands. We walked over to Lizbeth and Yuuki, "So, we ready to go finish this." They nodded and stood, with Yuuki walking over to me, "So, you sent Sinon over to apologise?"

"Yeah, I know how you get, I've only known you for most of our lives after all." She replied, saying the last part sarcastically.

"Yeah yeah, you're 13 , you think you're great at everything."

She snorted, "Hey pot, meet my dear friend kettle."

We continued bickering until we hit the summit of the Beor mountain. It was mostly flat, with a bunch of blue and turquoise transparent crystals. There was no sign of a boss, but we still all had out hands on our weapons. "Wait." We heard Sinon hiss behind us. "Listen, don't tell me in the only one hearing that."

I stopped walking and focused, and heard something that sounded like flapping, "is that, wings?"

"Sounds like it, means flying boss probably." We waited in silence, until Sinon screamed out, "Dragin, Above!" We ran backwards to see a giant white dragon, covered in small icicles. X'rphan, the white wyrm. It seemed to be regarding us with wise eyes instead of attacking, and I heard a deep voice speaking an older form of Japanese in my head.

' _Two legs. Why is thee here?'_

I motioned behind me for them to lower their weapons, as I set mine on the ground. I heard the others do the same. "O' wise one, we have come seeking a rare metal that can be found on the mountain you reside in." I was a fan of reading about dragons, and white dragons are the least hostile of the bunch, as long as you show respect.

_"So, two legs, thee and they friends have come seeking mine treasure?"_

"We are sorry to intrude, O' great one, but we came seeking ore."

' _tell thy friends to draw thine weapons, and prove yourselves worthy of my respect.'_

I turned around to see the three with confused yet awed looks, "Get ready to fight, but when I say stop, put your weapons away. We must prove ourselves, and we shall be rewarded. Lizbeth, go sit back, you're 15 levels lower than us, let us do the fighting, you just heal us if we need it." She nodded and ran off, while Sinon and Yuuki drew their weapons.

"So, please tell me you have some sort of plan for this?" Shino asked to my side, nervousness obvious in her voice.

"Move, and don't stop moving, onto attack when you see an opening. If you need to, run to Lizbeth to heal. We all have high agility stats, so we should be able to dodge decently. Wyrms aren't the fastest of dragons, so we should be fine. Just dont get Frozen and we should be fine."

 _'Is thou and company ready_?' I nodded,  _'Then, let this commence.'_

The wyrm flew up into the air, and the three of us scattered as it landed where we we're standing. I saw Yuuki slashing at it's legs then running, and Sinon running around throwing picks at X'rphan. It stomped around, and started breathing frost breath at Sinon, forcing her to run. Me and Yuuki took the opening that was open during the boss' attack. I placed me dagger in my sheath on my lower back, with my hand still on it. It started glowing, as I dashed forward at a extremely high speed, activating Zantetsuken, a quick and highly damaging ability that unlocked randomly when leveling my agility to 150.

I turned to see the boss, and saw it was at half of it's first bar of four bars. I saw Sinon hit it in one of it's eyes, affixing it with the blinded debuff. Both be and Yuuki lunged forward, with my passive for double damage on a status afflicted enemy, called Hex. We both attacked the boss as it flailed it's head, breathing frost breath. When we jumped back due to the debuff ending, X'rphan was down to it's third bar, as to where it flew back. "Guys, stop attacking, I think we're done."

I sheathed my dagger, and kneeled infront of the boss. ' _Congratulations, two legs, thee has proven thyselves worthy of my treasure, and my blessing. Come, follow.'_

X'rphan walked over to a large pit, and jumped in. "Hey, we need to follow, anyone have a rope."

"No, why would we think to bring a rope with us. We weren't expecting to have to jump into a pit"

I walked forward and started to slide down the side of the hole, which was tilted and enough if an angle to not fall strait down.

Once I hit the bottom, I heard the others fall behind me. We saw X'rphan looking at us, than retreat into a cave. I started walking forward before an arm pulled me back, "Shiro, how do you know this isn't a trap?"

"Because, I loved reading about dragons when I was younger. White dragons are the most peaceful of the chromatic dragons, if you catch them after they've eaten something. Dragons are also unable to tell a lie, as is their nature."

I walked into the cave, and the others soon followed. We saw X'rphan sitting surrounded by treasure.

' _Two legs, thee has proven thyself worthy of mine treasure, and as the keeper of mine kin.'_  He moved to the side, and revealed a light blue egg that looked like it was made of ice. ' _Two legs, thee is now known as friend of dragons_.  _Take care of mine, and he shall protect thou and thy friends.'_

"O' Wise one, what will happen to you.?"

_'My time is at an end. I ask of thou, take thy sword and end mine life. Mine treasure belongs to Thee.'_

"Thank you for your generosity, O' Kind one. I will take care of your kind, as long as I am in this world."

X'rphan hummed in acknowledgement, and I Rose my dagger to stab right where it's heart would be. X'rphan turned into blue polygons, and a reward screen appeared. It gave health crystals, and a pitiful amount of Exp. "Hey guys, we can look around here, take what you want. Lizbeth, go get your ore, it should be back in the pit under some snow." I walked forward to where the egg is.

I placed my hand on it, and felt warmth emanating from it. It soon started to glow, and make cracking sounds. I backed up, and soon saw a wyrmling appear out of the remnants of the egg. It had light blue, ice like crystal-esque scales, and dark blue eyes that looked like sapphires. It regarded me as I walked closer and held my hand out, and in response it held out it's head for my to rub, and when a did a menu saying enter familiars name with a text box. I entered Shiva and pressed the blue circle, and a new health bar appeared under mine. Shiva chirped and jumped up on to my shoulder, and I could help but grin as I turned to introduce the newest member of our little Gang of misfits.

"Hey, Sinon, Yuuki, meet Shiva."

Sinon reached forward to rub Shiva's head, and the familiar let out a purr like sound. "For something so dangerous, it's quite cute."

"Yeah, she's warmer than what you think an ice dragon would feel like." I looked at Sinon and noticed she had a bow slung over her shoulders, "Sinon, is that a bow?"

She smiled as she pulled it over her shoulders, "Yeah, it's called Khione's wrath, and it said that the arrows become like icicles when they leave. Yuuki found a new sword that slows enemies it hits, she said it's called Diamond Dust." She looked at me apologetically, "No new daggers though."

I shrugged, the motion startling the familiar on my shoulder. "Sinon, I have a miniature ice dragon on my shoulder I couldn't give a fuck about any daggers right now."

We gathered up the rest of the treasure in the room, which in total amounted to about 3 million col. We found that Lizbeth had found multiple different bunches of ore, and we headed back to her shop. She told us to wait in the main office room of her shop, where the three of us we're admiring Shiva, who could apparently create icicles out of thin air. Shortly after, Lizbeth came out holding a light blue dagger with a pitch black sheath. "Here Shiro, consider this your payment. It's enchanted to raise your agility, so it should help you." She handed it to me, then leaned forward and whispered, "Its early, but Happy Birthday."

I jumped back shocked, "How did you?" she just pointed to Yuuki, "Of course she did." I just put my hand on my head, "Anyways, thanks Lizbeth. We'll see you later." She nodded and went into the back of her shop, and we left the shop. We went back to our inn on floor 63, and accounted the total money we had.

"Hey, I think we could finally buy a house!" Yukki said enthusiastically.

"Yeah, it would be peaceful, not having to deal with a npc everyday." Sinon added, with Shiva chirping from her shoulder. She started giggling, "Hey Shiro, I think your dragon likes me more than you."

"Ahh, she just likes you because your cold. But I do think we have enough to buy a house in selmburg, so how about we go do that."

We stood up and teleported to Selmburg, where we headed to One of the most expensive districts, that ran at around 5 million col for one house. We bought one on the edge of the neighborhood, and we entered. It was just a basic house with three rooms, and basic furniture.

"I have a bed now, it's great." I headed over to the bedroom farthest from the living room, and went inside. There was only a bed, but that's all it needed for now. Shiva flew onto the bed and curled up at the edge like a cat would. I heard two pairs of footsteps behind me.

"So, did Liz confess her unending love for you?" I heard Yuuki say in a teasing voice.

"I could ask why you told her anything about our Irl lives, you know that we shouldn't."

"It wasn't on purpose, I swear. She overheard me talking to myself, so yeah." She rubbed the back of her head sheepishly.

I saw Sinon with a questioning look on her face, but it soon disappeared. "So now we need furniture, who's job is that?"

I shrugged and shooed them out of my room. "I want sleep, so figure it out yourselves."

I laid down on my back, and felt Shiva land and curl up on my chest as I drifted off to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry if I butchered the Old English, i'm not the best at it.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the last Chapter i had already written, so there will be a gap from now until the next update.

**Sinon's** **PoV**

**November** **27, 2023**

Me and Yuuki we're sitting in a safe zone on the 59th floor. There was a quest Yuuki got that required a rare drop from these giant apes that we're holding sake. We sat eating the lunch that Shiro made that consisted of sandwiches. Speaking of Shiro, "Hey Yuuki, why did Shiro sit out of this one?"

"Mm?" She finished chewing her food, "Uhh, today isn't really a good day for him."

"How so?"

She took another bite of her sandwich, "Well, something happened a couple years ago today, so, he's not exactly, ya know, all there right now? Is that a good way to phrase it?"

I didn't bother her anymore as she obviously didn't want to continue this subject. We sat there eating in silence until we finished. We stood, brushed the grass off of our armour and headed out of the safezone, "So, what exactly are we looking for?"

"Apeskin, apparently it's used for rugs, or that's at least what the NPC said when I got the quest. I really dunno."

We killed the few apes we came across, and there weren't many other mobs in the Forrest. We came across a large group, and killed them before they had a chance to drink and increase their damage. I had the reward skin appear and saw that an apeskin dropped, "Hey, I got one Yuuki, let's get out of here."

We headed back to the safe zone near us, and I heard rustling behind us. I turned, but I didn't see anything moving around. I grabbed Yuuki's arm and pulled her close, "Yuuki, I don't think we're alone here, we're too close to a safe zone for mobs to agro on us"

She nodded as I opened my menu and pulled up Shiro on my message list. ' _Shiro, we're in the Forrest on the 59th floor. Theres players near us that haven't showed themselves. We don't have teleport crystals. I don't know it they're red players or not, but we can't leave.'_

It didn't take long but I got a reply, ' _How deep in the Forrest are you, I'm on my_ _way_.'

' _Were at the third safe zone, just keep taking lefts following the path. Fifth left there should be a safe zone, that's where we are.'_

"Yuuki, Shiro said he's on his way, we just need to sit here and wait for him to show up."

She looked down and nodded, muttering something under her breath.

I sat next to her, "Something wrong? Normally you don't let things like this get you down."

"Its not me I'm worried about, it's Shiro. Today isn't a good day, as I said. Him having to deal with this, he might just finally snap. I'm amazed that he hasn't yet, not with all the people we've been dealing with recently."

"Well, if you think about it, he has been mostly calm for the entirety of this game so far, I've only seen his cold appearance start to break recently."

"Yeah, he has started to change more recently, he's not like he used to be." We sat there talking back and forth quietly, and I still heard the people around us moving occasionally. I heard someone running, and looked over to see Shiro running towards us. He was about to hit the safe zone before people in green tattered cloaks stepped out infront of the safe zone. I heard Yuuki suck in her breath next to me, as I realised the people that were keeping Shiro from the safe zone.

"Damn it, why is Laughing Coffin here."

The members of Laughing Coffin drew their weapons, two had a sword and one had a rapier. The one with the rapier lunged forward towards Shiro, but he stepped to the side and grabbed her arm, stabbing her twice in the side, then spinning her to slashed at her throat with his dagger, turning her into blue polygons.

When I saw and heard the shattering, my eyes widened and I started getting sick to my stomach. I forced myself to look away, I heard two more rounds of shattering. I closed my eyes and pulled my legs into my chest. I faintly heard Shiro and Yuuki talking behind me, then again the sound of shattering. Shortly after, I felt a small pair of arms around me, "Its okay Sinon. There's nothing here to hurt you now."

"Yuuki? Where's Shiro?" I said, my voice barely a whisper.

"Back home, he left us Crystals to get out of here. We should probably get back soon too."

I nodded as she handed me the crystal. I raised it and said, "Teleport, Selmburg."

I felt myself being moved through the system, and appeared in selmburg. Yuuki appeared next to me, and we walked over to our house, which was one of the closest ones to the teleport gate. We walked home, and opened the door to see Shiro cooking something and Shiva watching him from his shoulders.

"Hey, you two alright?" He said in a quiet voice.

"Shiro, did you really kill those three?"

He stopped what he was doing, "What about it. Someone had to do it, and I was there."

"But, they had families and people waiting for them outside of this world."

"And? You act you don't have people outside." He said as he walked past me and went into his room, Shiva flying past him chirping.

I heard Yuuki behind me and turned, and she had a saddened look on her face. "Yuuki, why is today a bad day for Shiro?"

She looked down and didn't say anything, as if think in of what to say. After about a minute of silence, she grabbed my arm pulled her towards Shiro's room. She opened the door and pulled me in.

"What." Shiro said, rolling over on his bed.

Yuuki sat on the edge of his bed, leaving me as the only one standing. "Shiro, I think we should tell Sinon about… ya know."

He sighed and sat up, "What brought this up?"

"I brought up that today wasn't a good day for you, and well, the way your acting does help that point."

"Sinon. If I tell you why, you tell us why you get panic attacks. Sound fair? I tell you my secret you tell us yours."

I looked down and nodded, "Alright."

He nodded and petted the bed next to Yuuki, "Sit, It's story time." I sat cross legged nex to Yuuki, and Shiva flew and sat on my lap. "Alright, back to the beginning I guess. I was born as the older of a pair of twins. I was born, and around a minute later my sister Iris was born on this day, 15 years ago. Iris was different from other people, she was born with heterochromia. She had one blue eye and one light gray eye. With her being different, she wasn't really accepted at schools.

"She was constantly bullied, and as her older brother I felt that it was my place to protect her. Instead of the kids beating her, they beat me as I shielded her." He chuckled dryly, "Hell, I'm still scarred. Proves that when you try to do good things it just backfires on you. I guess it was worth it in the end." He paused and made eye contact with Yuuki, who just nodded.

"Right, so skip ahead to 4th grade. I saw a 3rd grader being bullied, and that was before I started hating people, so I went to help. I pushed the people bullying her, and helped her up. That person turned out to the Yuuki, who's pretty much been with me for the past 7 years."

He paused and I took that time to jump in, "Wait, I thought you said that you and Yuuki meet on the second floor, back in the beta?"

They just laughed, "That was a cover up story, we didn't want to let people know we actually knew each other, but we trust ya Sinon. After all, if Shiro didn't trust you he wouldn't be telling you about his, well, less than stellar past."

Shiva got up off my lap and went back to Shiro, laying on his. "Really, sometimes I think your dragon likes me more than it does you."

He waved me off, "Yeah yeah, think what you want ice queen. But, when I helped Yuuki, we started talking, and she said why she was being bullied. She also had a twin, Aiko. She was a really sweet girl, she was quiet and shy, but she really cared about the people she was friends with. Unfortunately, Aiko and their parents we're diagnosed with HIV. I don't know the reason, but Yuuki's parents and Aiko had to get a transfusion, and the blood was infected.

"Because of that reason, Yuuki spent most of the time at my house when their symptoms worsened, as they didn't want to risk her getting infected. A while after, when I was in Sixth grade, me, Iris, and my parents went to the store. At the store, something happened. There was these men, they had really large jackets on, and I could tell there was something… off, about them. My parents had me run back to go grab something, as we we're back at the register.

"As I was heading back, I saw the men pull a device out of their pockets, and then explosions started going off. It turns out that they had C-4 strapped to their chests, and it was part of a terrorist act. Luckily, my mom didn't suffer, and gladly, my father did have to suffer. Iris however." He paused and I saw tears in his eyes.

"Shiro, you don't have to keep going."

"Yes I do, then it's your turn. I need to get this off my chest to someone other than Yuuki. Anyways, a piece of shrapnel hit Iris, and it caused her to start bleeding, it we couldn't stop it. So, my dad always carried a pocket knife with him, and the last thing I heard my sister ever say was that she wanted me to kill her." Tears were freely falling from his face at this point. "So, I did because we could stop her bleeding, and I didn't want her to suffer. That day it was on the news, so Yuuki came over when she heard, and luckily she did. I wouldn't be sitting here it she didn't show up."

He pulled up his sleeves, and there were even marks all up his forearm, with two deeper scars at his wrists. I reached forward to grab his hand, as it was shaking, "Why are you showing me this, do you really trust me that much?" He pulled away his wrists and nodded.

"Yeah, I trust you enough to tell you about this. How do you feel about being around a murderer?"

I looked down, "Your not the only one."

"Hm, explain it later, I'm not done. Well, I was dealing with depression for a couple years before the, incident. I already had cuts up and down my arms, and well, I lost what was really my only reason to live, and I lost it. Yuuki ran in on me, laying in my own blood. She called an ambulance and tried to stop my bleeding. I was unconsious from blood loss, so I had no clue what happened."

He stopped and hung his head down, his tears dropping off his face. I felt Yuuki push on me slightly, and whisper into my ear. "Comfort him, I think he would rather have you comforting him over me right now."

"Why?"

She shrugged, "Just an idea, just, please. I don't like seeing him like this."

I nodded and wrapped my arms around him, and felt him stiffen up before going back to the way he was before. He shortly resumed his story after, "So, when I woke up I had a bunch of wires and stuff, and bandages all around my arms. Yuuki was there, asleep on my lap. Apparently, she didn't leave my side for the three days I was out. After I got out, Yuuki's parents let her live with me, that way I didn't do anything that stupid. A couple weeks later, we had the funeral. It was on November 27, figures that my sister's funeral was the same day she was born. Made for the worst birthday ever.

"Thing is, me and Yukki never had to worry about money, my parents had decent jobs, my mom was a psychologist, and my dad was a nature photographer. They had around 500 thousand saved in American dollars, so that makes me about a millionaire in Japan. When we heard about SAO, we thought that it would be great it we could escape to another world, and get away from the hell that was our past." He chuckled dryly, "Well, look where that got us."

When he finished his story, he pulled himself out of my arms. "So, it's my turn now, huh."

They didn't answer, but I felt Shiro's hand on my shoulder. "Its fine, you really don't need to tell us if you don't want."

"No, I need to, you told me your past, it's only fitting I tell you about mine. Although, I do have a question."

"Hm?"

"You said you were glad when your father died, why?"

Is face soured, "He was a drink, abusive piece of shit who tried to rape his own daughter because she wasn't a son. He deserved to die, but he should have suffered more." He said in a monotone voice that had an edge to it.

"Oh"

"Joy, more story time." I chuckled at Yuuki's antics.

"So, when I was young, maybe around two, me and my parents got caught in a car accident. It caused my father to slowly bleed out, and my mother was forced to watch him die. Nobody ended up helping us for a while, so nobody could help save him. My mother became rather, fragile, due to that incident.

"So, when I was around ten, my mom took my to a post office. There was a man, and he had something wrong with him. He was shaking, and he smelled like cigarettes and alcohol. He walked up to the register and pulled out a gun. He pulled my mother hostage, demanding that the woman at the register filled his bag, or he would shoot. I ran up and bit his hand, and he dropped his pistol." My breathing started to get faster, and tears started forming in my eyes.

I felt Shiro wrap his arms around me, and could feel him breathing. My face started to heat up, and I started subconsciously leaning into his chest, slowly matching my breathing with his. When my breathing slowed, I heard him start talking. "You alright? Take your time, we've got all the time we need."

"I'm good, thank you Shiro. So, I grabbed his pistol, and he didn't like that. He started trying to grab it from me, and I pulled the trigger." I leaned more into his chest. "The bullet hit his chest, and it didn't kill him. He kept coming after me, so I shot again." Tears were freely falling from my face, and I felt Shiro tighten his arms around me, "The second shot killed him. It made me and my mom more distant than we used to be, and I eventually moved to Tokyo, with her giving me an allowance for food and paying my rent.

"That's why I'm scared of men, guns, and blood. That's why I came here, to this world. I wanted to try to become stronger, and look where that's gotten me, one mistake and I'm dead."

"Don't worry Sinon, both me and Yuuki will protect you, we both want to become stronger too."

"Um, weird question. Could I sleep in here?"

"Huh? Uh, you could sleep with Yuuki. Sorry, I just don't really want to share my room now. But, if you do have an attack, Yuuki can help you, she's helped my through mine."

"What? Your pushing this off on me?"

"Well, it's less awkward for a girl to sleep in another girl's bed, than it is for a girl to sleep in a guys bed when they aren't together." I nodded at his points.

"Good point." She grabbed my arm and started pulling me away from Shiro's chest. I whimpered in disappointment and started following Yuuki into her room. "Coke on, can't keep the two love birds together."

When she said that my eyes opened, "What? No, I'm not in love with him!"

She smiled mischievously, "Sure, that's not what it looked like."

"But, what was Shiro like, before everything happened?"

"Well, you wouldn't be able to get it from this, but he's quiet, he doesn't really care about others anymore, and he's gotten extremely protective of me, and I think you as well. Just, one thing before we sleep, be careful who you fall in love with Sinon. You haven't seen how Shiro really is most of the time. He's just putting on an act for my sake."

I nodded and laid down next to Yuuki on her bed, thinking about what she said.


End file.
